Your Health: Jul. 29, 2002

MORE HORMONE BLUES The bad news about hormone-replacement therapy just keeps pouring in. Not only has long-term HRT been associated with blood clots, heart attacks and breast cancer, but last week it was linked to cancer of the ovaries as well. A 20-year study found that postmenopausal women taking estrogen alone were 60% more likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who took no hormones--and that the risk increased the longer they took it. The researchers noted, however, that HRT preparations today differ from earlier formulations and that in the past, long-term treatment involved higher average daily doses of estrogen than those currently recommended.

GOT MILK? Doctors have long known that breast-feeding is good for baby and for Mom. Here's one more reason: an analysis of nearly 50 studies involving 150,000 women in 30 countries found that the number of children women bear and how long they breast-feed may help determine their chance of developing breast cancer. Women who had six or seven children and breast-fed each for two years had cancer rates less than half those of women who had two or three children and breast-fed them for only two months. But women with few children can still reduce their cancer risk 5% by breast-feeding their babies another six months--no mean feat in our busy world. --By David Bjerklie

Sources: J.A.M.A.; Lancet